Hyperbaric treatment humming along

Well, I am now a couple of weeks into hyperbaric treatment and it has been more time consuming than I first imagined. When you factor in driving time and traffic, it takes close to 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. That coupled with still having weekly Herceptin infusions and various and sundry doctor appointments, my days have been very full. I am still pretty fatigued and sleep a lot but a few days ago I did feel a shift. I could tell that the fatigue from radiation and chemo seemed to step down a notch, not a lot but I will happily take anything I can get!

Thank you for praying for healing for the wound. It started out at just over 3 inches square-ish. The top part where the wound was not so deep has already begun to show clear signs of healing. There is about a 1/4 inch of new, healthy pink skin around the edge of the wound. The doctors are all very encouraged by that and say that part is moving forward ahead of schedule. The area that is really deep where the skin and muscle had died still looks about the same, but that was expected at this point. The pain has also gotten better. I am no longer taking Vicodin during the day, I am able to push the pain to the back of my mind, so to speak, during the day. At night though, when there is nothing to distract my mind, I find the pain keeps me awake, so I am still taking one pill at night to help me sleep. That is a vast improvement over the pain level just two weeks ago.

One thing that has come up in the past two days that is a problem is that I am feeling very congested and there is pressure on my ears. There is also a lymph node that is just at the base of my left ear at the juncture of my jaw that is swollen and very sore. I missed a couple of hyperbaric treatments because of this. I really need it to heal quickly so that I can resume treatment as soon as possible. Because there is so much pressure in the chamber, they can't treat me if I am congested or there is any problem with my ears. They don't want an eardrum to burst. So if you would please pray, I would be very grateful! Please also pray for patience and grace for me with these treatments. I find being in that chamber for hours and hours and hours every week to be a bit annoying or irritating, I'm not really sure how to describe the feeling, but I need an extra dose of GRACE...that I know for sure. Thank you!!